Trade ends Schaub's love-hate relationship with Texans

Longtime Texans quarterback Matt Schaub dons a new look for his "fresh start" in Oakland. He was named the Raiders' starter, a job he had lost during the Texans' 2-14 season.

Longtime Texans quarterback Matt Schaub dons a new look for his "fresh start" in Oakland. He was named the Raiders' starter, a job he had lost during the Texans' 2-14 season.

Photo: Ben Margot, STF

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Houston Texans quarterback Matt Schaub (8) tries to avoid being sacked by St. Louis Rams defensive tackle Michael Brockers (90) during the second quarter of an NFL football game at Reliant Stadium 2013, in Houston. ( Karen Warren / Houston Chronicle ) less

Houston Texans quarterback Matt Schaub (8) tries to avoid being sacked by St. Louis Rams defensive tackle Michael Brockers (90) during the second quarter of an NFL football game at Reliant Stadium 2013, in ... more

Photo: Karen Warren, Staff

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Matt Schaub became a sideline fixture as the 2013 season deteriorated.

Matt Schaub became a sideline fixture as the 2013 season deteriorated.

Photo: Smiley N. Pool, Staff

Trade ends Schaub's love-hate relationship with Texans

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Matt Schaub arrived in Houston in 2007 as the answer. He was a young, promising but unproven quarterback who would erase the failure of the Texans' early lost years.

Schaub was the steady, consistent force that would move owner Bob McNair's team into the next phase of franchise history and become the centerpiece of general manager Rick Smith's top-to-bottom overhaul.

Schaub left Houston on Friday as the NFL's version of a failure.

He's the best field general in Texans history and one of the most accomplished players the organization - which only has three winning seasons in 12 years - has fielded.

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But he's widely viewed as an aging QB who was neither good enough nor strong enough to deliver when it truly mattered. Schaub, 32, is now a career-in-the-cross hairs washout, traded to Oakland for a 2014 sixth-round draft pick, entering pro football's version of an athlete wasteland.

"A fresh start can do a lot of things for a player and a team, and I'm one of those guys," said Schaub, during his introductory news conference with the Raiders.

Long-frustrated fans mostly blame Schaub for the Texans' 2013 failure, when a leaderless squad fell apart in public view, dropping from a Super Bowl contender to an NFL-worst 2-14 in less than four months. But for all of the anger and hatred directed at No. 8, the broken answer to local NFL dreams was never as bad or hopeless as outsiders made him appear.

Heading into free agency earlier this month, key Texans continued to stand behind a QB who spent 2013 having his jersey burned in a Reliant Stadium parking lot, was the reported victim of trespassing at his house and suffered everything from "Cut Schaub" cups displayed above Interstate 45 to a "Pick-Six" hamburger created in his name.

"He's been a very solid player in this league, a proven player," said Brian Baldinger, who played 11 years in the NFL as an offensive lineman and serves as an NFL Network analyst. "For the better part of seven years, Matt Schaub played that position really well in Houston."

A guarded, increasingly private Schaub will move on with his pro career, as a multimillionaire set to make nearly $11 million this season in the Bay Area.

The organization he quietly leaves behind is again in transition, contemplating taking Franchise QB No. 3 with the No. 1 overall pick of the 2014 draft and once more staring at the top of the biggest sport in the world from the bottom of the league's standings.

A mixed blessing

The Texans tried something different when they made Schaub theirs.

David Carr was the first selection of the 2002 draft and the initial pick in franchise history for an expansion team. He was never properly groomed or backed, though.

The 6-5, 235-pound Schaub was the antidote. He'd been selected by the Atlanta Falcons in the third round of the 2004 draft, then allowed to train behind former wunderkind Michael Vick for three seasons. By 2006, Schaub was primed. The former University of Virginia standout was ready to be a starter on most NFL teams and was entering the golden stage of his career.

Gary Kubiak's inaugural year as coach, a 6-10 Texans campaign in 2006, brought the end of Carr. A March 21, 2007 trade with Atlanta - two second-round picks for Schaub - gave Kubiak, Smith and McNair the quarterback they sought.

"When they signed him out of Atlanta after two starts, they were kind of taking a chance," Baldinger said. "Gary Kubiak was taking a chance, and it worked out probably as well as it could."

Numbers and honors sometimes backed the Texans' desire: an NFL-leading 4,770 yards and 398 completions in 2009; Pro Bowls in 2009 and '12, including a most valuable player award; a 64.6 completion percentage with 124 touchdowns to 78 interceptions during Schaub's seven seasons.

But the Texans were rarely dangerous under Schaub and, at best, an inconsistent threat.

They also could be maddening. Under Kubiak, Schaub was often the negative version of a system quarterback. Mundane check-downs and third-down passes fired short of first-down markers were routine, while Schaub's athleticism and arm declined just as the Texans finally appeared to be moving upward.

"With Matt, there's so much of Gary Kubiak's handprints all over him," said Ted Johnson, who spent 1995-2004 as a linebacker with the New England Patriots and serves as an announcer on 610 AM, the Texans' flagship station.

Schaub and the Texans were boxed in by the end of 2012. The team started 11-1 and won 15 of 16 consecutive games behind No. 8. But Schaub only led the franchise to one playoff victory in seven years - an unconvincing 19-13 AFC wild-card home win over the Cincinnati Bengals on Jan. 15, 2013 - and his name already was being worn out by disbelieving fans and media critics.

"They weren't winners (in) Houston, and the demands got higher," Baldinger said. "The playoffs, the limitations of coming from behind, the Patriots - those things were always there. And so fans get leery and coaches get leery and it's not good - it kind of collapsed."

When training camp for the 2013 season began, Schaub was viewed as a potential weak link on a deep, playoff-tested Texans squad - one that swore it had learned from past mistakes.

When 2013 was over, so was Schaub's career in Houston, and the Texans had reached a low only seen once during the laughable ineptitude of the Carr years. At 2-14, Schaub's team was the joke of the NFL and only the second squad in league history to fall 10 games in one year.

Beginning of the end

Yet Schaub was still seen as salvageable four games into 2013. The Texans opened with last-second, back-to-back comeback wins, both of which featured Schaub overcoming slow starts to carry his team to victory.

Then he collapsed.

Interceptions returned for touchdowns in four consecutive games set an NFL record. The Texans didn't win again after Sept. 15. And while Seattle cornerback Richard Sherman's Week 4 pick-six captured Schaub's fall and the cruel breaking of the 2013 Texans, it was a changed, fractured man that drew the truest portrait of a broken No. 8.

Schaub began to fall into a protective shell when his line gave way and opposing defenses converged. He screamed and beat his fists into the ground when well-designed plays went awry.

"Last year did not go at all how I'd planned, given my prior nine years before that," Schaub said.

The quiet, conservative Schaub also changed off the field.

He grew a thick beard as the season spiraled downward. He disappeared from the locker room when media was allowed in and declined multiple interview requests. Sometimes, Schaub hid in closed-off back areas, waiting for reporters to leave. Other occasions, Schaub agreed to speak, walked away while insisting he would return, then never came back to answer questions.

As 2-0 became 2-6 and 2-10, Schaub often stood alone on the Texans' sideline, arms folded and helmet on, watching the team he once led fall apart. Even when Schaub was allowed to return to the huddle - after former undrafted rookie and University of Houston hero Case Keenum failed, then was injured - random strong drives were offset by more interceptions and numbing defeats.

An end-of-the-game shouting match with veteran wide receiver Andre Johnson during a 28-23 home loss to the Raiders on Nov. 17 announced Schaub's departure. Kubiak's firing three weeks later, following a nationally televised road loss to the lowly Jacksonville Jaguars, sealed it. Schaub took over for Keenum in both contests and could never raise the Texans back up.

"(Kubiak) was the first domino to fall. So it was just a matter of time before Matt Schaub was going to be gone," Johnson said.

'A better place'

Two weeks ago, Schaub privately told close teammates he was still planning to return to the Texans. His annual charity golf tournament - a feature event of Schaub's well-regarded GR8 Hope Foundation - is set for April 7 in Richmond.

The Texans held onto Schaub as long as they wanted to. Then they discarded their 2007 answer, now an aging quarterback in decline with a multiyear contract, via a trade expedited by Thursday's signing of fill-in QB Ryan Fitzpatrick.

"He's got to be excited," Johnson said of Schaub. "He needed as much of a fresh start as Houston needed a fresh start. … Mentally, his confidence was shot. He'll go there and he'll be in a better place."

McNair and Smith are still searching for their real franchise QB. They and new coach Bill O'Brien are expected to turn to either Central Florida's Blake Bortles, Louisville's Teddy Bridgewater or Texas A&M's Johnny Manziel as Schaub's long-term successor.

Schaub ultimately became nothing more than another Texans casualty. Promise unfulfilled. Good but never great. All while being widely viewed as a strong teammate and easygoing man.

"The past is the past and I can't do anything but move on to bigger and better things," said Schaub, who was immediately named the Raiders' starter.